The Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 School Board is going to seek outside legal counsel to review the contracts for the outgoing and incoming district superintendents.
After wrestling with the wording, the board at a special meeting Tuesday night passed a motion authorizing the new board president to look into outside legal firms to review the contracts.
Current Superintendent Tom Burris announced his resignation in mid-September and the board that was then in place moved ahead with a speedy process to hire a replacement before a new board took office after November’s election. They chose Eddie Ramirez, the assistant superintendent under Burris.
Neither Burris nor Ramirez was present Tuesday.
The special meeting had only two action items.
The first, certifying the mill levy, took little time, but the effort to authorize engaging outside legal counsel took about an hour.
The original motion was “to consider and take action on engaging outside legal counsel to review the current superintendent’s contract following his resignation notice, and to review the transition and contract of the incoming superintendent.”
Mike Lynch, who is one of the only two incumbents on the new board and was elected to remain as secretary at the board’s Dec. 2 meeting, raised objections to the original motion.
“How are we going to do that – take action?” he asked. “What action are we going to take? Is it going to be good action? Is it going to be bad action?”
He continued, “I’m trying to point out the vagueness of the motion,” adding, “I don’t know whether it would be proper to vote for this motion or against this motion because I don’t know what it really means.”
The only other board incumbent, Jason Hall, voiced concerns about whether hiring a different legal firm was necessary.
“I don’t see why we would pay just for this specific job,” he said. “If you want to move from Mr. [Brad] Miller to another firm, I understand that.”
Miller, of Miller Farmer Carlson Law in Colorado Springs, is the district’s attorney but is a somewhat controversial figure because of his conservative political leanings.
Hall said it would be a waste of taxpayer money to seek an outside firm for the review of contracts.
However, the board moved ahead with the effort, amending the original motion to say that it would “assign a staff member to engage outside legal counsel.”
Lynch pointed out that the revised motion did not identify the staff member, so it was amended again to specify that board President Josh Shumway would be the person authorized to “secure additional legal counsel.”
Lynch raised concerns again, noting that the motion would grant Shumway a great deal of leeway to choose the counsel without regard as to the fees that would be charged or the counsel’s qualifications.
“I worry about giving all that power to one person,” he said.
Board member Laura DeWitt said she did not want the choosing of outside counsel to be a months-long process. “Some decisions come up that need to be made quickly,” she said.
Lynch said he wasn’t objecting to seeking additional legal counsel, but he was concerned about the process.
“We’re setting a precedent by giving one person a lot of leeway,” he said.
Ultimately, the board came up with a motion authorizing Shumway “to obtain necessary information from 3 legal counsel offices to bring back to the board for consideration regarding the review of contracts related to the Superintendents' transition.”
That passed 5 to 1, with Lynch voting no. Hall left before the vote.
